An economic post

28Jul08

“My, my Martha, that hat is close to spectacular,”‘ said Myrtle, but really she was thinking, “heaven knows what Reverent Lovejoy will make of that ridiculous looking creation.”

• Now I can’t say you’d notice a difference and we can only dream that it might ease the traffic, but the flagging economy means people are getting back on the saddle of their bicycles in attempt to save the pennies. This AFP piece reckons people are “giving up their Honda Dream, Wave and Future scooters — the ubiquitous symbols of Vietnam’s economic success — and are flocking to buy bicycles, which ruled the streets here until 20 years ago.” This intoxicating air of frugality has inspired some office poetry, which is apparently doing the rounds via email, looking with“wry humour at life in the times of double-digit inflation” :

“I take you to school on my bicycle,” it reads, describing a world where “helmets are suddenly useless,” “dogs will run through the streets with the old men” and “my mother races her electric bicycle. “Life in the fuel-saving period is so simple and romantic.”

• After my unwritten debut Love in the Time of Flu Strand H2n1 (which would have been a massive seller if I’d written it, if it had been published and if loads of people had accidentally bought it) I’m now contemplating not-penning my potentially critically acclaimed sequel Love in the Time of Double Digit Inflation . Watch this space for invisible extracts.
  

• If you just can’t get enough of deflating economies and inflating currencies, there’s another story here on how this downturn has put a dent into plans to turn much of the countryside into a golf course and as a non-golfing individual I’m absolutely fine with that — I do however love a round of crazy golf and even consulted for a bia-hoi based business group on establishing Vietnam’s first ever crazy golf course back in 1999BC when the world seemed ripe for the picking. Perhaps now is the time to table that plan again? And last but not least, and only if you really can’t get enough of the financial dire straits we’re all in, rising fuel prices have put a spanner in the proverbial works for Vietnam Airlines and it now costs VND20,000 to go pillion on a xe om from Hoa Ma street to Hang Tre street. I remember the time when VND20k could get you across the city and back again and you’d still have enough change for a couple of glasses of bia on the way home.

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Tags: economy golf bicycles